MANGALURU: The November 8 demonetisation move by Prime Minister Narendra Modi has seen Mangaluru City Corporation (MCC) laugh its way to the bank. Thanks to exemption given by the union government to citizens to pay their dues owed to civic bodies and public utilities using high value currency notes of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 denomination, MCC has netted Rs 1.78 crore by way of property tax, water bill and trade license fee from November 8 to date.

MCC commissioner Mohammad Nazeer stated that the civic body had collected Rs 34.05 lakh by way of property tax from November 1 to 8. This amount included Rs 28.22 lakh remitted to various collection points in cash and Rs 5.83 lakh by way of cheque payments. Out of the total cheque payment received, Rs 24,670 was returned for want of funds in the accounts of the issuer resulting in net collection of Rs 33.81 lakh to the civic body, the commissioner noted.

Post demonetization, MCC netted the above mentioned amount of Rs 1.78 crore. This includes Rs 94.39 lakh by way of property tax, including Rs 88.28 lakh paid by cash, Rs 3.77 lakh in cheque, Rs 2.32 lakh through demand draft. Cheque return amount of Rs 3,155 meant total accruals of property tax was Rs 94.36 lakh. The civic body also collected Rs 10.82 lakh by way of transaction on general and enterprises fund account that is rent, fees and so on.

Interestingly, the Rs 1.78 crore includes Rs 38.90 lakh by way of water bills, and Rs 60,665 in the form of trade license fee. Water dues and trade license dues are the major areas of concern for the civic body and the council has repeatedly expressed concern at the sluggish collection of revenue in these two areas. With government now allowing utility payments using HVC up to November 24, the MCC could make decent inroads in to its sluggish revenue collections.